St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-10-24
AN ODD CITY IN INDIA.
Life on the Streets of the Battle
mented Town. ri

All agree in calling Hyderabad the
most interesting city in India. 1t istthe
people themselves, the street life, the
medieval pageants and pomp, which
faScinate. Everything seems to have
stood still for centuries. One thing is
plunged suddenly into the age of the
cavaliers. The town is battlemented
and ditched and jealousy guarded In
fact, permit from the residents is nee
essary for Europeans who wish to enter
the walls. Al
Once over the bridge spanning the
half-dry stream, where elephants are
splashlng in the deep pools and humid
reds OF ''dhobies" are pounding and
scrubbing the linen of the Hyderabadee
households, and what a Kaleidoscope
tumble meets the eye in the depsely
crowded streets. There are long rows
OF low, whitewashed buildings, with
facades of Saracenic arches, under
which the merchants squat among piles
OF cotton goods, silks. carpets, brass
ware, grain, ETC., sucking meditatively
the amber mouthpiece of the inevitable
'hubble-bubble": money! changers
chewing betel-leaf and rafting
their bags of ''hallisicker" rapees,
or Jumps OF rOugh-cut silver
and copper. On the fiat, ter
raced roofs yelled women are curiously
peering at the yelling throng below
through latticed screens, reminding one
of Stamboul or Cairo. Elephants, gor-
geously capriSOned, saddled with silver
"howdah,'' in which 'snawabs,'' clad in
brilliantly embroidered silks and vel
vets, recline on cushions: camels on
which are perched the Arab soldiers of
the Nizam, armed with lance and shield !;
prancing little horses from the Persian
gulf, mounted by Sharp-featured par
sees, bankers, or great merchants, are
seen, while the multi-colOred throng of
pedestrians, Enthusiastically arrayed, or
scarce arrayed at all, as the case may
be, rolls increasingly to and fro.
To the initiated stranger it would
seem that the whole population is about
to rush forth to do battle with some in
visible enemy, for all are fiercely, alarm
ingly hung with murderous weapons,
from the great noble, with his bejeweled
rapier, dashing by, followed by his es-
or lanceS bent, to the peaceful ''ryOt,"
who has brought in his little harvest of
fruit or grain, spear and shield in his
hand, and wearing girdle full of
cleaning knives and ancient pistols,
and from the NiZam with Sword-hilt
scintillating with the gems of yonder
Golconda treasure house, to the
''sais," who runs before your
elephant, a dagger between
his teeth. A poor devil may have no
cloak, no turban, but he is sure to have
a couple of long-bladed knives thrust
into his meager loin-cloth, or a long
barreled Arabian gun slung over his
bare shoulder. Fastened on the persons
of the HyderabadeeS one sees every va.
riety of death-dealing weapon-the
curved cimeter, jagged ''tulwar,"
dOuble-edged crusader, undulating
blades of blush steel, perfidious, slim
stilettoes and battle-axes, with every
conceivable form of modern and ancient
gun and pistol, blunderbuss and match
lock. Many carry round shields of
transparent rhinoceros hide, gilded and
painted, or of steel deliberately incrusted
with graceful designs of gold and silver.